Fish lure and method of determining the proper coloring thereof



Jan. 30, 1940. R J JENNINGS 2,188,753

FISH LURE AND METHOD OF DETERMINING THE PROPER COLORING THEREOF Filed July 8, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1940- 1 J. JENNINGYS 2,188,753

' FISH LURE AND METHOD OF DETERMINING THE PROPER COLORING THEREOF Filed July 8, .1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 WCIJRNEY Patented Jan. 30,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FISH LURE AND METHOD OF DETERDIINING THE PROPER COLORING THEREOF Preston J. Jennings, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application July 8, 1939, Serial No. 283,365-

3 Claims. (01. 43-42) My invention relates to fish lures, and. more short period of time, my artificial lure is brightly particularly to the proper coloring of lures, and colored at all times and hence it is more apt to a method of determining such coloring so that to be noticed by the fish. I the lure, when seen in any location in the water When fishing for certain kinds of fish it is by the fish, closely simulates the appearance of desrable not only to have the lure colored in the a natural object upon which the fish feeds when proper manner, but to have it in other ways illuminated by the spectrum resulting from the closely simulate the appearance of the fiy or passage of light through water. small fish upon which the larger fish is known Light passing obliquely from air to water'is to feed. As will appear from the following debent or refracted. The extent of the refraction 'scription, my invention includes a method of 10 is determined by the angle at which the light determining the proper coloring for a lure which strikes the water, the limit being an angle of is to simulate the object on which any particu- 86 from perpendicular, in which case the' light lar fish is feeding. entering the water would be broken to an angle Further objects and advantages of my invenof 48 36'. Consequently a fish below the surface tion will be apparent from the following descrip- 15 of the water when looking toward the surface is tion, taken in connection with the accompanying able to see objects on the surface only within a drawings, which form a part of this specification limited circular area, hereinafter termed the and of which: window. This window is the base of a cone Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional View of a stream of 97 12' and the eye of the fish is always at illustrating the window and mirror formed in the 20 the apex. Due to the critical bending of light surface;

at the outer edge of the window the white light Fig. 2 shows the color bands bounding the is broken into its component parts and the winwindow illustrated in Fig. 1; dow is bounded by colored bands arranged in Fig. 3 is aperspective view showing the coloryellow and green in the middle and blue at the in "vertical position and viewed through a prism inside. The surface of the water outside of this while illuminated by reflected light; window acts as a mirror. When an insect on Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but showing the surface or a small fish below the surface the coloring when the fish is in a horizontal popasses through the boundary of the cone which sition;

forms the window of a larger fish, the small fish Fig. 5 is a side view of a plug colored in acis brilliantly illuminated with these colors. Howcordance with my invention so as to simulate a ever, the coloring of the small fish or insect defish as it ,ppears under the conditions illuspends upon whether it is passing through the trated in Figs. 3 and 4; boundary of the cone in a radial or tangential Fig. 6 is a side view of an artificial fiy simi- 5 direction and whether the large fish sees it with larly colored;

reflected light or silhouetted against the light Fig, 7 is a view similar to Fig. 3 except that above the water. It isone of the objects of my th fish i mu t d by t mitt d light; invention to determine the proper coloring of a Fi 8 1 a i i m t Fi 7, but showing accordance with the spectrum, red at the outside, ing of an object, such as a small fish, when held 25 I lure so as to cause it to appear like a natural th fish i horizontal position; and 40 object under one or more of these conditions. Fi 9 i Side i of a plug adored so as to Fish through experience, intuition, or some other simulate the fish as seen in Figs. '7 and 8. power not understood, know that this is the nor- Referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2 mal and proper coloring for the food they are reference character I0 designates a stream of seeking. Consequently, if an artificial lure is water or the like, the surface of which is desig- 45 colored in this manner, the fish is more apt to nated by reference character II. If the eye of be deceived intofbelieving that it is natural, than a fish is located at the point l2 and the fish is if it is colored in any other manner, no" matter looking toward the surface, this fish is able to how brightly. A lure colored in this way, when see things on the surface within a circular area 5 below the surface of the water, appears at all bounded by the dotted lines I3. These lines. times to the fish the same'as the natural obdiverge from the eye of the fish and intersect ject, which it is intended to simulate, does when the surface of the water at an angle 48 36' to the latter passes into the colorbands formed by. a perpendicular erected at the point of incidence. the spectrum. Thus, while a sniall fish is Light falling on the surface of the water from brightly illuminated by the spectrum only for a above is able to penetrate the surface at any as point within the critical angle. As is shown in Fig. 1, the greater the obliquity of a ray striking the surface, the greater is the angle of refraction, and the greater is the splitting of the ray into its component parts of red, yellow, green and blue. On the other hand, direct light rays striking the surface outside of the window do not reach the eye of the fish and consequently the surface outside the window appears like a mirror to the fish. As is illustrated in Fig. 2, the window is bounded by a circular spectrum with red at the outside, yellow and green in the middle, and blue at the inside.

If a fiy or other insect is on the surface of the water outside of the window the fish is unable to see it, except as a dark spot on the surface of the mirror. However, when the fly floats into the circular spectrum, it is brightly illuminated by the colors thereof and consequently its natural coloring is affected by it. The same is true with respect to a small fish swimming above the large fish. If the large fish happens to be looking at the surface at the time the fly or small fish passes into the spectrum, the fish is immediately attracted thereby and rises to the surface to take the fiy or small fish.

In accordance with my invention I provide a lure so colored that it appears to the fish at all times the same as does the natural fly or small fish when it passes through the spectrum bounding the window. However, the natural object is colored differently depending on whether it passes tangentially through the spectrum, as indicated by the arrow M in Fig. 2, or radially therethrough as indicated by the arrow l5. Moreover, the coloring also depends on whether the natural object is illuminated by reflected light as it would be at or adjacent to the point IS in .Fig. 1, or whether it is silhouetted against the source of light, as it would be at and adjacent to the point IT, or at any point on a cloudy day.

In order to determine how a natural object,

suchas a small fish, would appear when passing radially through the spectrum while illuminated by reflected light, a specimen of the small fish which it is desired to simulate is viewed through a prism l8, as shown in Fig. 3, while being illuappear to have a blue band across its upper end and a green band adjacent to the blue. Its lower end will appear to have a red band with a yellow band adjacent thereto. Consequently, a lure colored in this manner would closely simulate the appearance of a natural fish when passing radially through the spectrum and when illuminated by reflected light. Fig. 4 illustrates the apparent coloring of a fish which swims tangentially through the spectrum and it will be seen that the colors are arranged in the same manner with respect to the prism as they are in Fig. 3. However, inasmuch as the fish is in a horizontal position with respect to the prism the blue and green bands appear at the top of the fish while the yellow and red appear at the bottom.

Fig. 5 illustrates a lure-colored so as to simulate as closely as possible the apparent coloring of the small fish under both the conditions illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4.- Thus, the plug is provided with a red band along its lower side which extends along one end as well. Adjacent to this is a yellow band extending longitudinally of the lure and bounded on its lower side and one end by the red band. A blue. band extends along the upper side of the lure and is continued so as to provide a blue end opposite tothe red end. ll green band is adjacent to the blue one and is continued so as to provide a green band adjacent to the blue end of the lure.

I have determined from experience that under conditions of bright sunlight a fish will not as a rule look directly at the sun, but is more apt to look at that portion of its window which is away from the sun. Consequently, under these condilight entering through the fishs window is diffused, any object which it sees through this window is silhouetted or in other words illuminated by transmitted light. Consequently, in order to determine the proper coloring for a lure to be used under these conditions, the object which it is desired to simulate is viewed through a prism while illuminated by a source of light on the opposite side of the object from the prism, as illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8. Fig. 7 illustrates the apparent coloring of a small fish while passing radially through the spectrum, while Fig. 8 illustrates its coloring while passing tangentially through the spectrum. If an object, such as the small fish, is viewed through a prism while illuminated by transmitted light, it will appear to have a color fringe at its upper and lower edges. The fringe at the top consists of a narrow band of yellow above a narrow band of red while the fringe at the bottom consists of a narrow bandof green below a narrow band of blue. The central portion of the object is comparatively dark.

Fig. 9 illustrates a plug lure colored so as to simulate a small fish when seen under the conditions illustrated in both Figs. 7 and 8. Thus,

the upper edge of the lure is provided with narrow bands of yellow and red which also extend along one end. The lower edge of the lure is provided with narrow bands of green and blue, which also extend along the opposite end of the lure. Obviously, an artificial fly may be colored in the same manner.

For the sake of simplicity it has been assumed in the above that the natural object which it is desired to simulate is itself a neutral color. However, if such object is brightly colored when illuminated by ordinary white light, best results are obtained by providing thelure with these same colors, but as modified by the spectrum. In other words, the proper coloring of the lure is determined by viewing the object which it is desired to simulate through a prism and coloring the lure in exactly the same manner as it appears through the prism. The lure will then include both the colors actually present on the natural object, as well as the colors imparted thereto by the spectrum.

The scope of my invention is not to be limited to the foregoing description, which has been given by way of example only, but is to be determined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A fish lure having the predominant colors of the spectrum arranged thereon in the same manwhen viewed through a prism.

2. A fish lure having the predominant colors of the spectrum arranged thereon in the same man'- ner as said colors appear on a natural object when viewed through a prism and illuminated by reflected light.

3. A fish lure having the predominant colors of the spectrum arranged thereon in the same mannet as said colors appear on a natural object when viewed through a prism andv silhouetted against a source of light.

PRESTON J. JENNINGS, 

